Spring 2019: January 18th Issue 1

Aloha Vulcans

New year, new you. Shave your head, eat better, start or stop a habit, listen to a little more Sheryl Crow, whatever your resolution may be: I wish you good luck. I’m excited to meet the “new you.”

While I’d like to believe I’m perfect, and can not be easily persuaded otherwise, there are always ways for us to improve ourselves. It does not require a ball dropping in New York City or some dramatic countdown to say this is the time for you to make a change.

Instead of saying “I am not going to do this” or “I am going to do that,” look at all the things that you do and find those that do not need to change. Find what makes you proud, or what you do well, and instead of a resolution make an affirmation.

There is nothing wrong with being proud of yourself.

New Year’s in college is a bit of an oxymoron. If anything New Year’s Eve for us took place on Aug. 19; New year, new professors, new friends, new classes. Yes we may be starting again fresh, but all of the friends and connections we made last semester have carried over and will help shape our experience here for the rest of the year. When I look at all the people I’ve met here in Hilo, I hope that they never change.

I hope that they continue to see what makes them incredible.

I went back home to Los Angeles for the holidays for the first time in years. Seeing my family and friends at times was shocking. I was amazed at how much my sisters have grown, how small my mother is next to me when she used to wrap me in her arms, and how similar my hairline is to my fathers. My friends are now aspiring doctors, lawyers, directors, and more. Yet with all that has changed, so much is the same; the way my friends make me laugh to the point of tears, or the way my sisters and I play tag in the worst places possible, or the way my mom still loves her little boy.

These are the things I hope never change.

Take a look at yourself, and your own life to find those things that are so precious to you that to have it any other way would be unacceptable. Sure you can change how often you go to the gym or how frequently you’re allowed to listen to Dubstep, but never change the way you appreciate life and the way that you love others.

A man with many names,

Peter Holden Chao

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